Raising a Fox Spirit in My Home

Chapter 54: Hand in Hand, Now and Always

Rong Guofa’s hubris had angered a lot of the people who were watching his interaction with Su Chan. His humiliation was, therefore, a great source of entertainment for the onlookers.

“Millions of dollars go through his capable hands, he said? Yet he’s here at an amusement park, in the afternoon no less!”

“He’s probably here to make an investment. His company is, what, an international investment company? Where do you think the stalls and shops around here got their capital from?”

“A big company pouring funds into small businesses with so little returns? Yeah right.”

“Tsk! Didn’t you hear what the girl said? He’s the greatest shopkeeper in history! He handles everything!”

“Hey… maybe he’s running a sham company?”

Rong Guofa glared at the group of onlookers who had been making fun of him. When the jeers and jibes finally stopped, Rong Guofa turned back to Su Chan. “Pardon me, miss. May I know your name?”

“Her name is Su Chan, and she’s my girlfriend.” Li Yundong stopped beside them with two ice cream cones in hand. Adorning the corners of his lips was a hint of a smile. “To what do we owe the pleasure, sir?”

Rong Guofa turned his head to the side and saw a young man standing beside him. The young man was dressed plainly, though his eyes were anything but plain; they were bright, sharp, and so penetrating that it was as though they could see to the end of the universe. When their eyes met, Rong Guofa couldn’t help but feel a sense of inferiority creeping into his psyche.

“Y- you’re his boyfriend?” Rong Guofa stammered. Awkwardness filled his expression, and he quickly turned away from Li Yundong to face Su Chan. “Is he your boyfriend?”

Su Chan took the ice cream cone from Li Yundong and licked near the rim of the cone. Then she grinned at Li Yundong and said, “Nope!”

Li Yundong’s face fell slightly while Rong Guofa burst into laughter. Rong Guofa’s expression was practically dripping smugness when he said, “I knew it! I knew that a woman as beautiful as you are would never fall for a poor guy like him!”

Feeling slightly annoyed, Su Chan gave Rong Guofa a sidelong glance, then raised her ice cream cone to Li Yundong’s lips. “He is my…” Su Chan beamed. “Beloved!” Su Chan jiggled her ice cream cone a few times. “Have some ice cream, my dear beloved!”

Li Yundong’s scowl morphed into a grin. “Oh, okay! Since my girl’s treating me to her ice cream, I shall happily comply!” The grin on his lips turned sly. “I’ll take a bite!”

Li Yundong took a bite. Literally. Half of Su Chan’s ice cream cone was now gone. Li Yundong burst into laughter.

“Meanie! Meanie!” Su Chan smacked Li Yundong’s chest. “What am I supposed to eat now!” Then Su Chan snatched Li Yundong’s cone from him and took a bite.

Su Chan’s mouth was, unfortunately, too small to fit Li Yundong’s ice cream like she had hoped. She ended up with ice cream all over the bottom half of her face: the area surrounding her lips; her chin; even the tip of her nose!

Li Yundong pointed at Su Chan’s face and started laughing, which caused him to accidentally swallow the entire mouthful of ice cream in his mouth. He grimaced at the sudden coldness he felt in his chest, then began pounding his chest to soothe it.

Su Chan began to laugh at Li Yundong’s expense. However, her laughter turned into pants and deep breathes due to the freezing ice cream inside her mouth. But, not even the biting coldness inside her mouth was enough to stop her from poking fun at Li Yundong: “Ha! Ha! Serves you right! You had it coming!”

Li Yundong rolled his eyes without replying. Not that he could, since the inside of his chest felt like it was a freaking tundra.

Poor Rong Guofa could only watch the playful couple with a constipated look on his face.

Any other man would’ve bowed out gracefully at this point and left the couple alone. But Rong Guofa wasn’t just any man. He was a proud man with an ego the size of the universe.

Rong Guofa wasn’t even here to visit the amusement park. He owned a luxury home in a residential area nearby, and he was actually on the way home when he passed by the amusement park. When he saw Su Chan standing in front of the amusement park’s entrance, he couldn’t resist the lure of her beauty, so he’d decided to flirt with her in the hopes of getting her number.

However, when Li Yundong showed up, he was overwhelmed by a sense of inferiority and inadequacy. All of a sudden, he had an ax to grind, like he had something to prove to everyone here.

Rong Guofa knew that his days of youthful glory had passed. In terms of appearance, Rong Guofa knew that he was no match for the young man in front of him who was good-looking, energetic, and basically at the height of youth. But that didn’t mean Rong Guofa had nothing to fall back on; he had his wealth and credentials to flaunt!

In Rong Guofa’s experience, there isn’t a single woman in this world that is free from the clutches of vanity. Hence, there isn’t a single woman who could resist the lure of wealth!

Rong Guofa sneered. “How much do you want?” he asked Su Chan, pulling out a check book from the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

Su Chan, who had been fanning her mouth with her hands when Rong Guofa spoke, forcibly swallowed the entire mouthful of ice cream. When the freezing sensation hit, Su Chan grimaced and began jumping around. “What? What did you say?” Su Chan asked in a strained voice.

In the past, Rong Guofa had dated a lot of women, but not a single one was as innocent and beautiful as Su Chan. The more he looked at Su Chan, the more he wanted her. He just couldn’t help himself. He pulled out a pen from his pocket. “I said how much money do you want? How much money do I have to give to convince you to leave this guy?” He looked at Li Yundong at the end.

Su Chan’s brows rose to her hairline. “Are you very rich?” she asked coldly.

“Of course!” Rong Guofa said proudly. “It’s all about business. That’s how the world works. That’s how people work.” He paused, staring at Su Chan. “You can do business with anyone. It’s just a matter of price.”

“So what if you’re rich! There are still things in this world that money can’t buy!” yelled an angry onlooker.

The intimate bond between Su Chan and Li Yundong had sparked the admiration of the onlookers. Needless to say, they were enraged when they saw someone trying to come between the two lovers whose feelings for each other were clearly genuine. A love as pure as that was in short supply these days. They would not sit by and allow it to be tainted by a shameless, rich man who was incapable of loving anything other than that fat check book of his.

Apparently, Rong Guofa’s check book wasn’t the only thing that was thick. His skin was pretty damn thick as well. Ignoring the voices of angry onlookers, he looked Li Yundong right in the eye. “What about you? ” he said. “How much will it take for you to leave her?”

Li Yundong lowered his ice cream cone from his lips, which were pressed into a tight line. With a low growl, he stepped forward, then raised his fist.

Su Chan pulled Li Yundong’s arm back down before he could punch the other man in the face. When Li Yundong gave her a puzzled expression, she shook her head slightly. Su Chan was fully aware of Li Yundong’s susceptibility to emotional outbursts, which would very likely lead to physical confrontations. This was inevitable due to the Renyuan Jindan’s Qi coursing through his meridians. Before Li Yundong learned how to be the master of his own emotions, he would be highly susceptible to angry outbursts.

Su Chan had seen such outbursts over and over again: the first time in the market; during his fight with the gangsters; during his argument with the landlady when he’d nearly thrown the fat woman off the building; even just now when he’d yelled at his professor for denying her entrance into campus.

This time, however, Su Chan had been ready for it and thus managed to stop him in time. She didn’t want Li Yundong to run into any trouble. Trouble meant distractions, and distractions would be a hindrance to his Cultivation.

Su Chan pulled Li Yundong back, then leveled a cold look at Rong Guofa. “How many mouths do you have?” Su Chan asked.

For a moment, Rong Guofa seemed to be in a daze, as though he was trying to figure out if Su Chan’s question was a trick question. “One,” he said. “Why?”

“How many pairs of legs do you have then?” Su Chan asked.

Rong Guofa frowned. “One pair. Is there a point to these questions?”

“How many bodies do you have?”

“That’s a silly question,” Rong Guofa huffed impatiently. “Of course I only have one body!”

Su Chan’s smile right then was the very embodiment of contempt. “Well. You’re clearly aware that you, just like everyone else, have only one mouth, one pair of legs, and one body. No matter how rich you are, you can only eat one meal at a time, wear one pair of shoes, and put on one set of clothes. And guess what? That’s just what everyone else does.”

The sword of humiliation sliced through Rong Guofa’s ego. Blood gushed out of his wounded pride straight into his cheeks. “B- but even if they are the same items, they still have different grades and standards!” Rong Guofa argued, his face so red that he might start bleeding from the pores of his skin. “Look at my clothes and my watch! These are all luxury brands!” Then he pointed at Li Yundong. “His cheap clothes look like they were purchased from the night market at a discount!”

Su Chan laughed snidely. “So? Other than it’s fancy name, does your shirt have an extra sleeve? Or a few more extra buttons?” Su Chan paused for a few seconds for effect, then snorted. “I guess not then. You see? Your so-called luxury clothes are no different than Yundong’s cheap clothes.” Su Chan glared at Rong Guofa, her eyes glinting menacingly. “Let me tell you something, you fool. Nothing in this world can be graded. Only a fool would judge something’s worth by its name alone. What, did you really think that something could be more valuable just because of the user’s wealth or status? Wrong! A thing’s value can only be judged by two attributes. Virtue, and beauty! Everything is either good or bad, beautiful or ugly! It doesn’t matter what its name or brand is!”

A round of applause exploded among the crowd.

“Yeah!!! That’s right!!”

“Well said! Well said!”

“You go, girl!”

“Now that is what I call wisdom!”

“Girl, that was absolutely brilliant!”

While the younger men were clapping and staring at Su Chan admiringly, an elderly man among the crowd released a wistful sigh. “Not only is she good-looking, but her soul is also pure and untainted by this corrupted society. What a morally upright and virtuous young lady! I would gladly trade twenty years of my life to have a woman like that as a life partner…”

At that moment, Rong Guofa felt as though his entire worldview was on the brink of collapse, and all because of an innocent woman’s provocations! He jumped as though he were a cat whose tail had just been stepped on. “Those are just pretty words without any practical usage! Wake up, girl! This is the real world where your idealism doesn’t apply! Tell me this then. What can those words give you, huh? Nice food? Good clothes? Can they help you pay your rent? All I have to do is make a simple phone call to alter the economy of the entire Southeast Asian region! What can this penniless guy do!”

Su Chan burst into laughter as though she had just been told the funniest joke in history. As a Cultivator, Su Chan couldn’t care less about those material and worldly things. Attaining oneness with the Tao was all that mattered.

Status? Power? Money? None of those things could escape the eventuality of death!

For all their great accomplishments, what do emperors, conquerors, and all the great heroes of antiquity become after their death? A pile of dust and ashes. No different than criminals, the poor, and the people they had oppressed.

No amount of wealth and power could last beyond one’s mortality. Wealth and power are too weak, too fragile, too mortal.

However, by attaining oneness with the Tao, a Cultivator transcends everything, including mortality! To Cultivators, wealth and power are nothing compared to becoming a Shenxian!

As Su Chan’s laughter gradually subsided, Su Chan suddenly remembered a statement that her master had written on the Obelisk of Fengchen: “Throughout the dynasties and generations hitherto, so many people had the power and influence to alter the world trend; so many had the wealth to topple nations. Yet, how many of them could live forever?”

Su Chan stopped laughing and looked at Rong Guofa sternly. Then she pointed at Li Yundong. “This man is Li Yundong, and he’s my life partner. Remember his name even though he is just a nobody now, because I promise you that in less than two years, his name and greatness will shake the whole world to its core! And by then, he will be able to do the things that you do without breaking a sweat while you will never, ever, be able to accomplish the things that he can, not even in a million years!”

Su Chan’s firm and powerful statement reverberated through the crowd, echoing and resonating despite the fact that they were in an open area. Every onlooker was stunned by the sheer conviction behind her statement. For the life of them, they couldn’t figure out the reason behind her confidence and faith in Li Yundong.

Su Chan’s dignified expression made Rong Guofa swallow the snide retorts that had been at the tip of his tongue. Still, he refused to back down. “Him? What makes you think that he will achieve such greatness?” he challenged.

Su Chan turned away from Rong Guofa, then closed the distance between herself and Li Yundong. Before she spoke, she gave Li Yundong the tiniest of smiles.

“Because I’ll be by his side every step along his journey to greatness!”

A swell of emotion rose in Li Yundong’s heart. All of a sudden, he found himself incapable of breathing. His emotions crashed and roiled inside his chest like a tsunami. And boy if he wasn’t close to tears. At that moment, he knew he had found the source of his courage. With a woman like Su Chan at his side, he felt as though he could support the weight of the sky even if it crashed down!

Li Yundong returned Su Chan’s smile and slipped his right hand into Su Chan’s left, then laced their fingers together. At that moment, as their fingers intertwined, so did their hearts. They were one, mind, body, and soul. They brushed past the dazed Rong Guofa and walked away from the crowd without so much as a backward glance. Shoulder to shoulder they marched away from the amusement park towards their bright future, towards greatness.